Tahneta Lake Tundra 49"h x 26"w

Most of the leaves have fallen to the ground where I live, yet the Alaskan tundra remains a blanket of colorful texture. Tomorrow it could all be under snow for the winter.

Usually I paint in watercolor, but this image just begged for the vocabulary of textured paper. I use regular white tissue paper, lovely Japanese papers, and an assortment of other papers to get a variety of texture. I lay them on plastic, then splatter them with fluid acrylic paint. Can you imagine how much fun that is? If I splatter with bluegrass music playing, it can get pretty wild. My rug in the studio will never be the same. It’s too late for a drop cloth. After the splattered paper dries, I tear it into pieces and glue them to a canvas.

When I paint with other mediums I like my studio orderly, but when I’m creating a collage my studio looks like a tornado blew through. Today, pieces of paper escaped into the living room and out onto the deck.

I took the photo of this collage outside in the sunshine so you could see the texture. A black fly stopped by and landed on the mountain and I just couldn’t deny him a moment of fame.

Here is a closeup showing the different papers.